Perfectionist

Hello everyone!

I'm starting this thread in order to give an update on our plans for Alchemy. Many of you have provided great feedback on the system, and since its release we have been making many small tweaks to make it better. However, as a few other staff members have mentioned, we are currently taking a hard look at the system to see what could be improved. We would also like to do a better job of keeping all of you informed of the changes we make.

One note: Alchemy is being used by a large number of people, many who love it, and some who aren't quite so... into it. Our goal is to make it fun, yet challenging, and for it to be a way to tie different elements of the site together. Everyone has a different opinion on how to do that, so we’re going to try a few different things intended to address the most common feedback, while not changing the system too drastically for those already using it successfully.

First, we’ve heard pretty clearly that two of the main issues users have is that it’s too difficult at the beginning, especially for new Alchemy users. One thing we just did to address this is to add a link to the Alchemy Starter Kit (available from the original announcement) directly to the Alchemy page. This won’t help people already crafting items, of course, but it gives newcomers to Alchemy a chance to try it out right away. We’re also going to try to make it more obvious that there are alternate paths to crafting certain items, since some users aren’t seeing the page numbers in the lower corner. Finally, we’re going to make it easier to complete early-level formulas. We’re not completely sure how yet -- maybe by requiring achievements, or making brand-new formulas, but we’re working on that right now.

Second, we understand the frustration around how there can be an imbalance in cost between formulas, components, and the resulting item, and how hard it can be to get the components for some formulas. I don’t have any definite answers to give you at the moment (also I don’t want to make any promises that we may not be able to keep), but we’re doing some pretty heavy statistical analysis to see where we could re-balance the system. Once we’ve made some changes, we’ll let you know.

Based on your feedback, we have a list of a few other things that we can look at, but the things I have already mentioned are where we are going to start. I'll be posting again when we have any updates to share. And thank you for all of your suggestions and comments, whether for or against alchemy. They all help us to make Alchemy and Gaia better!

To keep the focus in this thread on the updates, I’m locking this particular thread. But as always, we will be keeping a close eye on any feedback threads made.